Second Look: a snapshot of the college football week that was

Don't count Ole Miss out, but Houston Nutt didn't have his team ready for Thursday's game at South Carolina.Second Look runs every Monday in The Birmingham News.

MONDAY MORNING QB

Houston, we have a big problem with a certain play call. Ole Miss had the edge in talent, the momentum and was (finally) moving against South Carolina. But with a chance to go ahead, a Nutt-y reverse pass call snuffed the Big Mo and helped secure one of the biggest upsets since the Ol’ Ballcoach moved to Columbia.

THE WEEK THAT WILL BE

The biggest mystery since Professor Moriarity got the jump on Sherlock Holmes will be solved between the hedges. Fellow enigmas LSU and Georgia try to solve a riddle for the season by proving who’s ready for SEC primetime.

USC makes the trip to Berkeley with a Rose Bowl berth potentially on the line. But after USC’s loss at Washington and Cal’s debacle in Oregon, maybe even the snooty folks in Pasadena want to go to Plan B.

The road to BCS prominence goes through Birmingham. Sam Bradford scheduled a visit with Dr. Jim Andrews with Saturday’s trip to Miami on the horizon. A good prognosis could get Oklahoma back in the hunt for a national title.

GRIDIRON TALK

“He asked me, ’Did I hold onto the ball?’ I told him he did, and he winked at me and said, ’It’s great to be a Gator.’ ”

5. Tony Pike, Cincinnati QB: Riddled Fresno State for 300 yards and three TDs through the air in a 28-20 victory. Last week: not ranked.

TOP TEN

Top 10 things worth buzzing about over the weekend and in the days ahead:

1. Both of the SEC frontrunners suffered scary injuries. Tebow is back in Gainesville after spending the night in a Lexington hospital. But a seasonending knee injury suffered by Alabama linebacker Dont’a Hightower is bad news.

2. Does Urban Meyer have some explaining to do? Florida was up 31-7 late in the third quarter when Tebow got hurt. That’s after he spent the week battling illness. Why take a risk with a victory in the bag?

3. Social networking can be dangerous to your athletics program. Football and basketball players at Kansas came to blows Tuesday night over a woman following comments made on Facebook.

4. We’re calling the brawl West Side Lawrence Story.

5. Who’s the biggest winner from Oregon’s smackdown of Cal? Boise State, which handcuffed the potent Oregon offense in the opener. You can’t envision a BCS buster without seeing Smurf Turf.

6. Miami’s Cinderella season came to a sudden end against Virginia Tech. Ditto, Jacory Harris’ Heisman hopes. Both schools have played brutal early schedules.

7. Neither program will get a condolence card for Rich Brooks. In back-toback weeks, Kentucky will host the No. 1 team, Florida, and the team that probably deserves the No. 1 ranking, Alabama.

8. The worst news for Bobby Bowden over the weekend wasn’t the loss to South Florida. It was the reminder that Bulls’ fill-in quarterback, B.J. Daniels, hails from Tallahassee. Ouch!

9. Two early wins continue to resonate for Alabama and Auburn.Virginia Tech is living up to the preseason hype since its loss in Atlanta. And Auburn’s victory over Mississippi State looks more impressive after the Bulldogs shut down Vanderbilt and took LSU to the wire.

10. Speaking of Auburn, the Tigers’ 4-0 start is creating an economic boon in Lee County. Yep, all the cell carriers are probably making a bundle replacing the phones ruined by rain the last two weeks at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Doug Segrest’s Second Look appears every Monday during the college football and basketball seasons. Check out Segrest’s blog at blog.al.com/segrest and participate in his live SEC chat today at 1 p.m.